Even more bugs fixed in FocusWriter

Bill Kraski says:

July 8, 2011 at 6:34 am

I just installed the latest version of Focuswriter for Windows. And I’m impressed. Enough that it may become my blog writing tool of choice. I do have two feature requests of sorts.

First, right now, theme installation is one at a time. At least for the initial addition of themes, it would be helpful if we could select the entire contents of a theme folder and have them all install at the same time.

Second, I’d like to see optional integration with Dropbox, Sugarsynch or Evernote. My preference is Evernote, since they are most clear about account content belonging to the account owner. But that integration would allow working on a document on one computer, saving it to the cloud and being able to call it up on another computer, continuing to work on the file in Focuswriter there. Just a thought.

sojusnik says:

July 9, 2011 at 9:07 am

Are there any plans to improve the performance of focuswriter? When a document has some pages, the scrolling has a little delay. Using Ubuntu 10.10 64-bit with the latest FW version.

Emily says:

July 11, 2011 at 10:38 pm

Ok, I loove focuswriter 1.3.2, it worked absolutely fine in ubuntu.

For some reason, this update robbed me of my typewriter sounds! They “won’t load.”

It also closes randomly when I try to change the settings. There is a loss of ease with going to fullscreen/distraction-free mode by hitting f11…I am not sure when it will close on me. It seems to lock up easily and then force shut down all on its own.

I’d prefer to go back to the last version but I *can’t*. There’s no force version.

I don’t know what to do. I’m sure the bug fixes are worth keeping, but where are my sounds? And why is acting like it doesn’t want to stay open?

Graeme says:

July 13, 2011 at 3:18 pm

@Bill Kraski: I’ve thought about adding support for installing multiple themes at once, but haven’t yet seriously looked into how easy it would be to add. So, short answer is that I don’t know if it’ll get into the program or not. 🙂

As for cloud syncing, I cannot support Dropbox as the license is incompatible with the GPL. The others may or may not work, I haven’t looked into them too closely. I’m hesitant to add support for most of these services because I don’t like several aspects of their terms. I might add support at some point for ownCloud, which is made by KDE and therefore fully in line with both the GPL and my principles. I can understand why the feature would be useful to some people, so it’s on my (somewhat lengthy) list of potential features.

@sojusnik: I’m always striving to improve the performance of my programs. FocusWriter doesn’t have any slow-down issues on my computer, so I’m not sure yet what’s causing yours to have problems. I’m looking into it. Did you use any of the previous versions of the program, and were they slow, or is it an issue with the latest update?

@Emily: To fix your sounds, you need to install libsdl-mixer1.2 through your package manager. I’m not sure yet what your closing problems are caused by, as I cannot recreate that on my computer. Exactly what version of Ubuntu are you running (as specific as possible), and is it the 32-bit or 64-bit version? Basically anything that you can tell me about your setup would help me figure out what’s different than the one I have.

Bill Kraski says:

July 14, 2011 at 5:30 am

Thanks for your response, Graeme. The theme thing is really more of a want than a need. Evernote is something I use, so that’s more of a need. Although I have another request that might help take care of that.

There are several programs I use in finding content for my posts: my Chrome browser, eSword Bible program, Evernote for things I’ve saved there, plus some others less consistently. Since the topbar doesn’t include the usual minimize/resize/close buttons on the right, would it be possible to add a configurable menu to the right end? That would allow opening programs after focuswriter is open without having to save the file, exit focuswriter, start the program, then restart focuswriter and reopen the file. And prevent opening lots of programs beforehand, “just in case”. By making the menu configurable, each user could include access to just the programs they use to help create content for whatever they’re writing in focuswriter Now, THAT would be an awesome addition.

And thanks for a great piece of software. I’m getting to enjoy it more and more.

Graeme says:

July 14, 2011 at 2:22 pm

The more I look at the Evernote, the less I think it is compatible with the GPL. I don’t think I will be adding Evernote support, sorry. As I said, the only “cloud” I might add support for is ownCloud.

As for accessing the rest of your computer while using FocusWriter, you can already minimize FocusWriter or take it out of fullscreen, and those actions can be added to the toolbar as well (in the toolbar tab of the preferences dialog). Then you can just launch and interact with your other programs in the same manner that you always do, without reloading anything.

Bill Kraski says:

July 14, 2011 at 3:48 pm

Well, I obviously haven’t fully explored focuswriter enough. I’ll look at the taskbar options. If I can add access to Evernote, there, copy & paste works wonders. 😀

Thanks, again, for a great program.

Graeme says:

July 14, 2011 at 4:15 pm

I’m glad you like it! I should probably add a toggle out of fullscreen to the toolbar by default, just to clear up this kind of confusion for new users. 🙂

sojusnik says:

July 14, 2011 at 4:23 pm

@Graeme

I don’t know what’s causing this delay, but I clearly can feel it when the text gets longer. Also, when lots of other programs are open, the same behaviour is observed. It is similar to a webpage, that has a lot of multimedia context in it, so the scrolling is not smooth, but choppy.

In OpenOffice i.e. this is not the case…

I am myself unsure what is causing this, so I thought maybe you can explain or experience this small slowdown in Focuswriter…

sojusnik says:

July 14, 2011 at 4:30 pm

This behaviour was also observed in older version of FW. So therefore it was always there.

Betty says:

July 14, 2011 at 7:10 pm

Hi Graeme,

Thanks for developing FocusWriter. I have just installed it and will be trying it out soon.

May I know if you could include feature that allows the use of Endnote, like the way MS Word could. In my writing I have to make many references from my Endnote which has a collection of references.

If possible, I like to suggest providing some themes in the FocusWriter instead of just plan grey screen for a start.

Thanks again for sharing.

Bill Kraski says:

July 15, 2011 at 6:25 am

Consider it a feature request. Minimizing focuswriter interrupts the flow to a degree. I still think the ability to access a configurable menu of regularly used software or the ability to add them directly into the toolbar would be a help.

Graeme says:

July 16, 2011 at 7:58 pm

@sojusnik: I’m really not sure. You could try switching the graphics system used by Qt; the simplest way to do so is appending “-graphicssystem raster” (without the quotes) to FocusWriter’s executable line in whatever launcher you use. Do any other Qt programs show problems with scrolling large amounts of text?

@Betty: I currently have no plans to add support for Endnote, and I’m not sure I would be able to. That is also outside of the intended scope of FocusWriter.

I do have plans for improving the default theme in a future release as I am aware just how bland it currently is. 🙂

@Bill Kraski: I understand your desire to have faster switching to other programs, but I still think that it is something that should be done by the desktop environment.

Negro Lito says:

July 18, 2011 at 1:15 am

Hello (I’m using the google translator)

Focuswriter really enjoy.

I’m using the app in Ubuntu. In the last update I lost the sound of a typewriter. I get the message: “unable to load typewriter sounds.”
That message I get every time you check the sound of a typewriter.
How do I get sound? I find it very pleasant. I already used to it.
Congratulations on this beautiful application.

Lito.

Warren Ernst says:

July 18, 2011 at 3:30 pm

Re: Dropbox integration. Am I missing something? The whole point of Dropbox is that when you save the file (like an RTF that Focuswriter is making) to a Dropbox-watched folder, it *automatically* syncs with the cloud. Then go to another Dropbox-equipped computer and the RTF file is automatically there too. Direct Dropbox integration only makes sense if you’re using Focuswriter on a device with no local storage, and I don’t see Focuswriter support on any of those platforms (well, really, iDevices.)

Graeme says:

July 18, 2011 at 11:29 pm

@Lito: You need to install the package libsdl1.2-mixer to get typewriter sound effects because they are now fully optional.

@Warren Ernst: No, you’re not missing anything. I’m only talking about direct integration with cloud services. Any cloud service that provides actual filesystem integration is automatically supported, because there is no need to add anything to FocusWriter.

Wiz says:

July 23, 2011 at 10:09 pm

@Graeme
@Betty

My girlfriend likes FocusWriter and, in the same time, she needs footnotes. What I can do? Well, after some “googling” I’ve found a workaround. Take a look to the code by Doug Robbins:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/34850310/word--macro-to-convert-text-to-footnote-based-on-conditions.aspx

The bad is that you need a MS Word. The best is that the same macro code works for almost any text editor or word processor.

I think that with some trivial change in the VBA code the same workaround could be used for endnotes as well.